


Matt Has All Kinds Of Things In His Head: Harriet Slow Dancing With Danny And Then Some

by nowhere_blake



Category: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-30 03:19:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5148323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowhere_blake/pseuds/nowhere_blake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> If I slow danced with Danny, your head would explode and you know it. </i><br/><br/>Every time I re-watch this show or those two West Wing episodes with Matthew Perry and sometimes even randomly when I just sit at my desk, staring into distance, thinking about the chemistry Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford have and how it's heartbreaking that we can't get more of it (I do that fairly often actually), this is the sentence that I just can't get out of my head. I don't know why, but it's just so powerful and I love it and well... here's a Matt and Danny thing that I wrote about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matt Has All Kinds Of Things In His Head: Harriet Slow Dancing With Danny And Then Some

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering and in the mood for a re-watch, all this takes place in/is taken from episode 2. :) And if you are a fan of both Studio 60 and Ant and Dec, then... Hi. Hello. I am very sorry about not updating _Secrets, Tears and What-ifs_. I swear, I'm working on it and it'll happen eventually, love you all, okay, bye.

‘If I slow danced with Danny, your head would explode and you know it’, is what Harriet says and Matt needs a moment to understand what she’s saying. Because, well, at first it sounds like that what she means is that she’s as jealous of Jeannie for spending the night at Matt’s, as Matt would be of Danny for being with Harriet, but that doesn’t seem right. While Jeannie and Harriet are good friends, they don’t even come close to the Matt and Danny standard, so really, the two scenarios are nothing alike. Harriet would never be as hurt by Jeannie’s betrayal as Matt would be by Danny’s. And then something clicks in his head and it kind of feels like he’s having a heart-attack, because, holy fuck, Harriet is saying something entirely different and Matt has no idea how to deal with that.

Because what Harriet means is basically just ‘you are to me what Danny is to you’ and yes, she’s right, Matt’s head would absolutely explode if Harriet and Danny were to get involved with each other, because he couldn’t stand losing Danny to someone as close to him as Harriet. Now, _that_ would be betrayal. And there are way too many things about this that he needs to think through, like oh shit, Harriet _knows_ and also, is she saying that she’s in love with Matt the way Matt is with Danny? And he sees something challengingly mocking in Harriet’s eyes that means ‘now what do you say to _that_ , big boy?’

To be honest, he doesn’t really know what to say to _any_ of that and he has no idea why Harriet brought it up (and why now), although it must have something to do with what they’ve discussed earlier about him dating masses of people that he’s never even met – so wait, is she jealous or is she calling him out on cheating? –, but frankly, Matt is not even sure if he interpreted this whole slow dancing thing right, but then Harriet is saying ‘and you had to know I was gonna find out’ and oh. Maybe he did interpret it right. Because the way she says it kind of sounds like she’s talking about finding out about _Danny and him_ and not _Jeannie and him_ and then she says ‘that’s just mean’ and she seems really hurt and upset, and she walks away, and it’s breaking Matt’s heart, but mostly he’s just confused.

So he goes after her, _Harriet_ , _Harrie_ , and he kind of tries to settle the whole Jeannie thing first, because one problem at a time, _pretty please_. And he explains that it was Danny who sent Jeannie home with him and then she pulls a face that translates to something like ‘so you’re telling me that because Danny is okay with you sleeping with other people, I should be too’, but it could be just the lighting. But then Harriet asks ‘ _and?_ ’ and this is it, this is Matt’s chance to explain and clarify and come clean about this whole thing and Matt would like that very much, because he wants to have an honest conversation about this and he’d also like to know how Harriet found about him and Danny and also, how long has she known, but he just blows it all off. Harrie seems disappointed in him, but that’s nothing new and Matt hates himself for it, because he loves her and because he likes it when everyone’s cards are on the table and everyone has all the information available; after all, this is not a goddamn TV drama with misunderstandings and other things, where people are being vague deliberately for plot purposes.

But when Harriet asks ‘ _and?_ ’, he doesn’t say anything, not a word about any of this. He doesn’t tell Harriet that _and_ he’s been in love with Danny for a pathetically long time now. _And_ he’s been sleeping and doing all kinds of other things with him for almost as long. _And_ he still doesn’t know how to handle the part where Danny occasionally marries other people, then divorces them, all the while never even considering to break it off with Matt. _And_ , well, that’s pretty heavy, because that’s the part that makes Matt do stupid things, like occasionally have sex with Jeannie and that’s also the part that makes Matt fall for Harriet _repeatedly_ , then break up with Harriet _repeatedly_ , basically as many times as it takes to get over Danny not having a proper relationship with him. So yeah. He just says something like, ‘ _and_ I just wanna make sure that you’re okay’ and some stuff about how they need a great show this week, which is so so plot-relatedly TV drama vague that he can’t help but spit out a ‘dammit’ after Harriet has walked away in all her beautifulness and beautifully disappointed blondeness.

Then he goes back to his office and tries to write something, _anything_ and also tries not to think about how messy this whole thing is now that Harriet quite possibly entirely certainly _for sure_ knows about him and Danny. Which is very hard considering that he’s writing _for_ Harriet. (Always has, always will.) And then it gets even worse, because Danny comes in with the pretence of talking about producer stuff, but actually just wanting to hang out and potentially check on him. And after the conversation they had this morning (‘Matty, you and Harriet are all set, right?’) Matt is not even surprised by the checking on him part.

He rarely talks about Harriet with Danny and when he does it’s usually pretending and lies – that they both know, Danny can see through oh-so-easily –, but today they already talked about Harriet twice and that’s twice more than what Matt can normally handle, let alone on a day of cold open writing hell of _no pressure at all, Matt_. Still, the checking on him part is more than understandable; it really got out of hand with the whole ‘Were you trying to tell me something about Harriet before?’ thing, which is sweet of Danny, but just nope, nope, nope.

The thing is, he actually was. They were watching Jordan introduce them to the press and Matt was upset about Danny letting him sleep and lose an entire day of potentially not-writing and that’s why Matt can’t blame this all on Danny and on the fact that he sent Jeannie home with him, because, well, he _was_ trying to tell him something about Harriet and did indeed almost bring up the topic of ‘Matt’s pitiful little Harriet problems’, but then he saw Danny’s face and thought better of it. There was a reason why he rarely talked with Danny about Harriet, after all.

So that was that and then Matt got upset about the Crazy Christians sketch getting out, so he kind of forgot about being upset about other things, like all the Harriet stuff and the Barbra Streisand-loving, quite possibly gay, but definitely _definitely_ Democrat slur about them on the radio. But then Danny had to bring it up again. Not the Barbra Streisand-Democrat thing, the other thing. The thing about Harriet.

Then after ‘Were you trying to tell me something about Harriet before?’ came the whole ‘When?’ ‘Before, you said something about Jeannie and Harriet.’ And all Matt said was ‘It doesn’t matter.’ And who is he kidding, it’s perfectly understandable why Danny is checking on him now; ‘it doesn’t matter’ is not exactly the answer that implies that he’s fine or that him and Harriet are ‘all set’. Danny’s also checking on him because of stressing out about having to write an entire TV show by himself, but yeah. Mainly just the ‘it doesn’t matter’ thing.

Danny thankfully doesn’t actually bring it up again and they somehow get into this banter-ish stupid conversation about Matt pacing while writing and a really bad ‘you’re very _active_ when you write’ innuendo-joke repartee _thing_ and then Matt really wants to push Danny up against like a wall or something and kiss him, which is _no, come on, office with glass walls, seriously Matt_.

They end up at Matt’s place and eat Chinese food on the couch, then Danny has to make calls and he’s being all busy and important, walking up and down in Matt’s living room, so Matt goes back to not-really writing. It makes him think about Harriet again and the fact that what he said to her, (‘So can you keep your head in the game?’ – and the _instead of thinking about me and Danny and all kinds of other relationship stuff_ bit that he didn’t add) is basically the same ‘it doesn’t matter’ answer he gave Danny this morning.

It’s around 2 am when he wakes up to a gentle touch on his shoulder and he’s confused for a moment, because he didn’t realise he fell asleep and then Danny ignores all his protests, closes his laptop, makes him stand up from his desk, kisses him thoroughly and leads him to the bedroom. They don’t actually end up having sex, the whole thing just dies down after a while and doesn’t get past lazy making out while lying on top of each other, but Matt doesn’t mind it that much – his back still hurts a bit, and he feels so so exhausted. He’s resting his head on Danny’s shoulder as they fall asleep and doesn’t that tell so much about them, because they both know that Danny’s shoulder’s gonna hurt tomorrow morning, but he lets Matt do it anyway.

He takes a deep breath, tries to lose himself in the way it feels so content; just lying there next to Danny, and Danny's warm and safe and familiar and he smells like _Danny_ and Matt is kind of glad that they are doing the show after all, even though he still doesn’t have a cold open.

‘If I slow danced with Danny, your head would explode and you know it’ is what Harriet said and fuck Matt, if it’s not a hundred per cent true.

 


End file.
